Date: 14-16 December 2011
Time: 7.30pm
Location: Karamel, Wood Green
Tickets: £8
Time: 7.30pm
Location: Karamel, Wood Green
Tickets: £8
"Oh My Word"
To summarise this panto: a country lesbian, Whit, moves to London with her cat, meets a girl and immediately falls in love. However there are challenges to overcome such as the girlfriend's allergy to Whit's pussy, a love triangle, a drug dealing villain and a permanently hungover fairy godmother. As you'd expect, it all works out in the end, via some random plotting, oh and there's lots of singing too.
Miss Whittington and Her Cat, part panto-part pastiche takes on traditional fairytale romance, panto humour and a gentle mocking of some of the iconic elements of lesbian London and British culture, and has you laughing on pretty much the whole journey (except when you're booing the villain or shouting 'it's behind you' or singing along)!
After being advised to set our mobiles onto vibrate the panto commenced. The humour was pleasantly saucy and the story told in traditional pantomime chaotic fun, and full of double entendre and audience participation. There were lots of references that would be well known the lesbians in the audience from paying £5 to get into the "Sweetie Bar" to remembering what your date's IRL name is to struggling to run a profitable organic upcycling ethical fairtrade business. The story even had that traditional lesbian dilemma: do you choose your girlfriend or your cat?
There were some star turn performances, in particular the villain, Ratty who was gloriously hammy, unlikeable, yet engaging. The staging was also done particularly well for the small venue and in the third act the cast managed to turn a plain stage into a ship in under a minute, brought to life by some very convincing swaying across the stage during the storm. The cast also responded very well to some lively heckling.
All in all a very entertaining evening, as we have come to expect from the Darlings and we recommend keeping an eye out for their next performance.
The Drill Hall Darlings have set sails to a new venue for their Christmas Panto. We travelled north to Wood Green to a lovely, intimate restaurant called Karamel (a franchise of the menier chocolate factory). The food was reasonably priced and served right up until 8pm when the show began.
Review by Katie Hall
The Drill Hall and the Darlings in 2012
We have learnt that the Darlings have lost their home at the Drill Hall due to the lease being sold - the Drill Hall will cease trading at the end of the year, and will become a RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art) media hire and rehearsal space. We look forward to hearing that they have found a lovely new home very soon!
Miss Whittington & Her Cat
Miss Whittington & Her Cat by Giselle Johnson has been specially commissioned for the Darlings. Dyke diva Giselle has also written previous shows for the Darlings: Take Me Back to Lesbos and It's Christmas, Carole! The show was directed by Barcy Cogdale.
About the Darlings
The Darlings are a community lesbian troupe that was formed in 2007 to celebrate The Drill Hall's 30th anniversary with a one-off storytelling event. The Darlings are not professional performers, but do everything they can to be splendid.
If you would liek to become a Darling you can by signing up to their email list at www.outhouselondon.co.uk.
About the Director, Barcy Cogdale
Barcy trained at Rose Bruford College and has a degree in Community Theatre Arts. In 1997 she set up the award-winning Ruby Tuesday Productions to work on theatre that reflected the lives and issues of out lesbians.
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